Stationary Enterprise Apiary (Western Australia)

Hi Team,

We are setting up a stationary apiary enterprise in Western Australia.

Last year, we purchased a property in Toodyay, northeast of Perth, in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. We are investing significant sums in converting this run-down pastoral property into a unique stationary commercial apiary.

We have and will keep our Flow Hives for personal liquid honey; these are our pet bees :slight_smile: and we love our Flow Hives for their cost-effective, stress-free honey collection.

Our commercial business plans to plant hundreds of pollinator-attracting native trees, shrubs, perennial herbs and hectares of annual pasture flowers of various varieties over the next three years as we take a staged approach to building up the total number of our commercial beehives.

Our plantings will provide quality forage for the bees all year round. Most importantly, we will eliminate the need to move hives to other forage sites or provide supplementary feeding by eliminating local dearths.

We aim to harvest our unique virgin-cut-comb honey continuously and humanely collect bee venom for the premium export market. Our strategy is to level the production curve and provide local workers with future employment opportunities.

We will use direct marketing and online sales to maximise returns as we build the brand in Asia and elsewhere.

Enterprise partners hold a Master’s in Research, Business Administration, and several other undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. We are not nerds; I completed an agronomist traineeship as my first post-high-school job.

We will actively explore university and industry research partnerships and grants for our unique apiary and pasture management practices. BICWA, AHBIC, and any university with agricultural research grant money in their kitty with keen students willing to build new scientific knowledge are welcome. There are plenty of opportunities for Master’s and PhD students from around Australia and worldwide to earn their testamur as the project develops and during production.

At the moment, we sadly have to look out upon the dry and barren pastures that have seen over 150 years of wheat, hay, sheep meat and wool production, :cry: and we look forward to the future when a kaleidoscope of colour excites the eye and warms the heart across all four seasons. We also look forward to thousands of happy bees buzzing around, foraging for nectar and pollen and living their best lives. :smiley:

You could follow our lead; however, consider the following:

You must be prepared to outlay a significant sum for land, equipment, ongoing pasture management, tree pruning, fuel and labour costs, marketing, etc.

Location is critical. We chose this unique property because of its Mediterranean-type climate with an exceptional north-facing location, low frost potential microclimate, gentle slope, deep, loamy-clay-degraded-granite soils, significant water resources for irrigation, and a beautiful winter creek across the lower end of the property.

Most importantly, the neighbours, sheep, cattle, wheat and hay farmers, do not grow canola. They are known to plant field peas, lupins and other nitrogen-fixing cover crops, which, when in flower, can provide supplemental forage sources, especially as trees, perennials, etc., mature.

Canola is disastrous for ultra-premium virgin cut-comb-honey production. No one wants to buy candied cut-comb honey that tastes oily.

Our maturing screening trees, shrubs, herb plantings, field flowers and hive locations all combine to discourage the bees from contaminating the cut comb honey with canola or other forage sources off-site.

Last but not least, you need to have a vision for the future and be able to plan meticulously to bring that vision into reality.

Terry